Our Story

Trudy Markies opened Aspidistra Antiques in the heart of Forest Row in 1981. Having always held a passion for Antiques, in part due to her Grandfather having an Antiques shop in the 1920’s in Amsterdam.

Trudy presented Aspidistra as a typical village Antiques shop, selling a range of items from christening and wedding gifts to jewellery, porcelain, tableware and furniture. By the mid 1980’s the shop was increasingly popular with queues at the door around Christmas time. Tables were bedecked with photo frames, candlesticks, French paper weights and linen.

Jeroen joined his mother, Trudy in 1985 in his early twenties and remembers with great fondness the early morning markets around Sussex where he found his love for finding rare and beautiful things, a few hundred pounds would fill the Volvo estate with extraordinary treasures.

After a few years of working closely together whilst Jeroen studied History of Architecture, Art, and Decorative Arts, Trudy took a step back, with Jeroen renaming the business ‘Jeroen Markies Antiques Ltd' with a move towards focusing more into the buying and selling of higher quality Art and Furniture.

In 2000, Jeroen moved to a larger premise to keep up with the growing business. It was at this time that he noticed a shift away from traditional Antiques towards the 20th century Arts & Crafts, Art Deco and Art Nouveau, in particular Art Deco where he had always held a special affection for its clean lines and comparatively modern look

In 2018, Jeroen’s son Jacob officially joined the business having himself developed a love for the trade, whilst being dragged around early morning markets with his Dad from a young age to helping with exhibitions as a teenager. Jeroen Markies Art Deco became Markies Antiques in 2025, to not only focus on Jeroen and Jacob’s close relationship and collaboration but to cater for an ever changing Antiques trade where the mixing of styles, periods and treasures comes back into fashion.